Public Health Law Blog Archive

Increased social distancing is one of the tools that public health officials use when responding to infectious disease outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has devoted considerable resources to their Social Distancing Law Project, which aims to outline the legal challenges to social distancing. 

The Network has created two blog posts on recent changes to a federal law setting privacy protections for student information held by schools. Click the title to read the post about how the federal privacy law has been tightened to protect student information. Or click here to read another post about a change that will enhance the sharing of student health information between schools and public health departments.

The Network has created two blog posts on recent changes to a federal law setting privacy protections for student information held by schools. Click the title to read the post about a change that will enhance the sharing of student health information between schools and public health departments. Or click here to read another post about how the federal privacy law has been tightened to protect student information.

A year ago we wrote about the alarming increase in drug overdose, which is now the second leading cause of unintentional injury death nationwide. This increase, which is mostly driven by prescription opioids such as oxycontin and hydrocodone, is particularly troubling because opioid overdose is typically reversible.

I’ve always been passionate about preventing secondhand smoke exposure, especially in young children. Most states now ban smoking in workplaces and bars, and legal challenges to these laws typically fail because there’s no constitutional right to smoke.

In collaboration with the American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics and the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at Arizona State University, the Western Region is pleased to be part of the 35th Annual National Health Law Professors Conference from June 7-9, 2012 in Tempe, Arizona.